based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more âŠ
480 BC â Leonidas, (b. circa 540 BC); King of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, one of the sons of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed to be a descendant of Heracles, possessing much of the strength and bravery that made his ancestor famous, died on this day.
While it has been established (to say nothing of being turned into the film "300") that King Leonidas of Sparta died at the Battle of Thermoplylae in August, 480 B.C., defending Greece from an invasion by Xerxes and his Persian forces, very little is known about the year of his birth, or for that matter, his formative years, but it is legend that he was accompanied by his "army of lovers." These were the Spartan army, who each went into battle with his male lover by his side, in the belief that they would fight better for each other. It is assumed that Leonidas had his own lover by his side.
1945 â Denis Lemon (d.1994) was a British magazine proprietor, editor and journalist. Born in Exmouth, Devon, he grew up in Herne Bay and Whitstable. He moved to London for a job in accountancy, and later worked in a record shop in south London. He founded Gay News - Britain's pioneering gay newspaper- in June 1972 with Andrew Lumsden. Within months he was the sole editor.
James Kirkup's poem The Love that Dares to Speak its Name was published in the 3 June 1976 issue of Gay News. The poem, written from the viewpoint of a Roman centurion, graphically describes him having sex with Jesus after his crucifixion, and also claims that Jesus had had sex with numerous disciples, guards, and even Pontius Pilate.
In early November 1976, Mary Whitehouse obtained a copy of the poem and announced her intention to bring a private prosecution against the magazine. Leave to bring this prosecution was granted on 9 December 1976. The charges named Gay News Ltd and Denis Lemon as the publishers. A charge against Moore Harness Ltd for distributing was subsequently dropped. The indictment described the offending publication as "a blasphemous libel concerning the Christian religion, namely an obscene poem and illustration vilifying Christ in his life and in his crucifixion".
The Gay News Fighting Fund was set up in December 1976. Judge Alan King-Hamilton QC heard the trial at the Old Bailey on 4 July 1977. Gay News Ltd was fined ÂŁ1,000. Denis Lemon was fined ÂŁ500 and sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended. It had been "touch and go", said the judge, whether he would actually send Denis Lemon to jail.
Mary Whitehouse's costs of ÂŁ7,763 were ordered to be paid four-fifths by Gay News Ltd and one-fifth by Lemon. Gay News Ltd and Denis Lemon appealed against conviction and sentence. On 17 March 1978, the Court of Appeal quashed Denis Lemon's suspended prison sentence but upheld the convictions. Gay News readers voted by a majority of 20 to 1 in favour of appealing to the House of Lords. The Law Lords heard the appeal against conviction and delivered their judgment on 21 February 1979. At issue was whether or not the offence of blasphemous libel required specific intent of committing such a blasphemy. The Lords concluded that intention was not required. The appeal was lost.
The European Commission of Human Rights declared the case inadmissible to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights on 7 May 1982. The £26,435 raised by the Gay News Fighting Fund through benefits and donations from the gay community and others, including a £500 donation from Monty Python, was sufficient to cover the costs of the trial and appeals.
Although he poem is freely available via the Internet it has never been published in the UK since and until someone challenges the decision, the blasphemy ban still stands.
As a result of the world-wide publicity surrounding the trial Denis Lemon found himself as a public speaker.
Denis Lemon fell ill and sold Gay News in February, 1982. (It folded shortly afterwards.)
He briefly worked with Paul Oremland on Channel 4's One in Five, the first national lesbian and gay television series. He became a restaurateur in London. He then moved to Exeter with his lover, Nick Purshouse, and opened a restaurant at the Arts Centre.
Denis Lemon died on 21 July 1994 after several years of AIDS-related illness.
In his obituary of Denis Lemon in The Pink Paper, 29th. July, 1994, Richard Smith said, 'The last year has seen the British gay press finally coming of age with a number of new titles. But none of these would have been possible if it were not for the groundwork done by people like Denis Lemon a quarter of a century ago.'
Picture above: Denis Lemon watches [on the left] as the Tom Robinson Band â who had that year released the anthem Sing If You're Glad To Be Be Gay - play at a Trafalgar Square protest of the prosecution of Gay News in 1978.
1949 â Born and raised in Edinburgh, Ian Charleson (d.1990) attended the Royal High School and then went on to attend the University of Edinburgh. He initially studied architecture but switched to acting. After graduating from Edinburgh he won a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
His best-known role was as the athlete Eric Liddell in the film Chariots of Fire (1981). A very fine stage actor, his other notable film appearances included his film debut Jubilee (1977), Gandhi (1982), and Dario Argento's horror classic Opera.
Shortly before his death, from 9 October to 13 November 1989, Charleson performed a run of Hamlet at the National Theatre â giving a definitive performance which garnered major accolades. The day following Charleson's final Hamlet performance, when Ian McKellen was given the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for his Iago in Othello, McKellen offered thanks, but said having seen 'the perfect Hamlet' at the National Theatre the previous night, he thought that not he but Ian Charleson was truly the Best Actor of 1989.
Charleson was diagnosed with HIV in 1986, and died of AIDS-related causes in January 1990 at the age of 40. Charleson is buried in Portobello Cemetery, Edinburgh.
The Ian Charleson Awards have been presented annually since 1991 to reward the best classical stage performances in Britain by actors aged under 30.
The HIV day care centre at the Royal Free Hospital in London NW3 is named in his memory.
1970 â Charles M. Blow is an American liberal journalist, commentator, and current visual op-ed columnist for The New York Times.
Blow was born and raised in Gibsland, Louisiana. He graduated magna cum laude from Grambling State University, with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He has worked as a graphics director and art director for The New York Times and National Geographic.
In April 2008, he began writing a column in The New York Times. His column had originally appeared biweekly on Saturdays. In May 2009, it became a weekly feature and appeared twice, weekly, in December 2012. As of May 2014, it appears every Monday and Thursday.
Blow often appears on CNN and MSNBC.
On February 22, 2012, Blow referred to presidential candidate Mitt Romney's "magic underwear", an apparent reference to the Temple Garment, in response to a comment by Romney about two-parent households. The comment was criticized as insensitive to Mormons. In response, Romney joked that "I guess weâre finding out for the first time that the media is somewhat biased." Blow later apologized.
In 2014, Blow published the book-length memoir entitled Fire Shut Up In My Bones.
In August 2016, while appearing on CNN with Donald Trump presidential campaign delegate Bruce Levell, Blow called Donald Trump a "bigot" and said that anyone who supported Trump is "a part of the bigotry itself."
In 2014, Blow came out publicly as bisexual.
1978 â Mark Alexandre "M.A." Fortin is a Canadian screenwriter and producer. He co-writes with his life partner Joshua John Miller; together they wrote the screenplay for the 2015 horror comedy The Final Girls, and the pilot of the USA Network drama series Queen of the South.
Fortin was born in Montreal, Quebec and raised in Oakville, Ontario. He is an alumnus of Emerson College, from which he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2000. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theatre Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. He is gay, and as of 2013 is in a relationship with fellow screenwriter Joshua John Miller.
Fortin frequently co-writes with Joshua John Miller. Their first collaboration was on the short film Dawn, which was directed by actress Rose McGowan. The short premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. The two then wrote and executive produced the horror comedy film The Final Girls, which was directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and stars Taissa Farmiga and Malin Ă
kerman. The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 13, 2015, and was given a limited release in the United States on October 9, 2015. Fortin and Miller wrote the pilot of the USA Network drama series Queen of the South, which premiered on June 23, 2016, and for which they also serve as executive producers.
1980 â Justin Jedlica, formerly known as the Human Ken Doll, is an American man who has garnered international attention for undergoing over 700 cosmetic procedures.
At the age of seventeen, Jedlica began to research his first cosmetic procedure, rhinoplasty. Inspired by watching Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous as a teen, Jedlica saw body contouring and cosmetic surgery as emblematic of the wealthy, glamorous lifestyles he sought to emulate. His parents did not approve of cosmetic enhancements and Jedlica was forced to wait until he could legally make the choice for himself. Four days after his eighteenth birthday, Jedlica underwent his first cosmetic procedure, to reconstruct his nose.
As of 2012, Jedlica had undergone approximately 190 cosmetic procedures. These have included rhinoplasty, chest implants, shoulder implants, bicep implants, triceps implants, brow shaving and lifts, cheek augmentations, subpectoral implants, gluteoplasty, and lip augmentations.
Jedlica identifies as gay and wed his partner, a successful businessman, in a civil ceremony in July 2014 after five years of dating; the couple relocated for business purposes to Chicago and resided in Trump Tower. In 2016 they divorced after two years of marriage.
1995 â South Korea marks its first Pride Celebration with a march and other events in Seoul.
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